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In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.

Project Professional Notes (PPN) is a student-run initiative of the members of Qabeelat Tayybah (NY) and is not sponsored or approved in any way by AlMaghrib Institute or its employees. By the guidance of Allah, we have compiled notes for Shaykh Abdullah Hakim Quick’s class, Deeper Roots: History of Islam in the Americas held on February 16 – 18, 2018. Any good you attain from these notes are from Allah and any mistakes made are from ourselves. We kindly ask that you keep the volunteers who diligently worked on these notes in your duaas.

Arbia Majeed

Arva Anees

Inshika Ahmed

Mosabbiha Nafisah

Muntasir Sayeedi

Musabika Nabiha

Radiyyah Hussein

Zohira Mohammed

Special thanks to those who intended to contribute but were not able to. May Allah reward you tremendously. Ameen.

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DEDICATION TO

Shaykh Abdullah Hakim Quick for opening our eyes to our rich history that is often

hidden, for encouraging us to research further and rediscover our potential as a growing

Muslim Ummah, and for facilitating the path to gaining confidence in our Muslim

identities. May Allah grant Shaykh Abdullah Hakim Quick success and barakaah in his

endeavors to educate the world about Islamic history. Ameen!

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Table of Contents

Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 5

Part One: Reflections On History ..................................................................................... 18

Part Two: The Golden Age of Islamic Civilization ........................................................... 23

Part Three: Early America From Ancient Times ............................................................. 30

Part Four: Muslim Presence in the Americas (Before Columbus) ................................. 36

Part Five: African/Muslim Presence in the Americas (Before Columbus) ...................... 41

Part Six: Muslims Presence in Early America (Post- Columbus) ..................................... 48

Part Seven: African/Muslim Presence in American Slavery …………..…………………………57

Part Eight: The Indentured Labor Period (19th Century………………………………………….65

Part Nine: Muslims in the 19th

and 20th

Century Economic Migration….….…………..…….69

Part Ten: Lessons from Deeper Roots………………………….……………………………………….72

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Surah Talaq, Ayah 2-3 [65:2-3]

يجعل له مخرجا. ومن يتوكل ومن يتق للا بالغ فهو حسبه إن للا أمره قد جعل على للا

لكل شيء قدرا. للا

“...And whoever fears Allah - He will make for him a way out. And He will provide for him from where he does not expect. And whoever relies upon Allah - then He is sufficient for him. Indeed, Allah will accomplish His purpose. Allah has already made a limit for all things.” There is a purpose for everything happening in this world. There’s also a limit - a limit to exploitation and oppression. We live in strange times, times of deceit. Technology allows us to learn more, however, it simultaneously confuses us more. Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said,

عليه وسلم صلى للا سيأتي على الناس عن أبي هريرة قال قال رسول للاادق ويؤتمن فيها سنوات خداعات يصدق فيها الكاذب ويكذب فيها الص

ويبضة ن فيها المين وينطق فيها الر ويبضة قال الخائن ويخو قيل وما الرجل التافه ف ة الر .ي أمر العام

“Years of treachery will come over people in which liars are believed and the truthful are denied, the deceitful are trusted and the trustworthy are considered traitors, and the al-Ruwaybaḍah will deliver speeches.” It was said, “Who are the al-Ruwaybaḍah?” The Prophet said, “Corrupt men with authority over the common people.” [Ibn Majah] And it has come to pass with our leaders, Muslim and Non-Muslim. The Muslim world is in chaos. There has been injustice since the beginning of Islam. After the Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) passed away, fitnah spread among the Muslims. Then there was the period of colonialism and thereafter, neo-colonialism where their own rulers were worse than the foreign powers who had previously ruled over them.

Shaykh Abdulllah Hakim

Quick used to be a Black

Panther, standing up and

struggling for justice.

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This brings up the question - Can the fallen Muslim nations rise? Movies and fictional narratives puts us in a false construct, pushing us to look up to false superheroes and allowing us to be distracted from our true heroes and the real struggles within us. In World War II, the Germans, Italians, and Japanese, formed an axis of power and fought the Europeans, Americans, and Russians. By the end of the war in 1945, the Americans unleashed the atomic bomb for the first time ever on the Japanese. Over 100,000 people were instantly killed in Hiroshima and then the Americans bombed Nagasaki. The country was devastated and ruined, but by the 1960s, Japan was able to make a comeback as the world’s leading economic power. Although Germany had been bombed out of existence as well, the Germans rebuilt and made a comeback as a world power. What did these nations have that allowed them to rise again? If they could rise, it’s possible for the Muslim nations today to rise as well. Potential of the Muslim World:

1. Muslims make up over 26% percent of the world’s population. a. Africa makes up the majority of that 26%.

2. Rich in natural resources.

a. The conflicts in the Muslim world are related to the natural resources there:

i. West Africa in the Sahara: Underneath the Sahara Desert lies the largest Uranium deposit known to the world, which the Tawariq people protected. When the French found the Tawariq people struggling and vulnerable, they sent in their forces to bring peace to the land. However, their main motivation had been Uranium as their nuclear system is reliant on it.

ii. Somalia has the largest coastline on the continent and is abundant in mineral and coal deposits along with a huge oil deposit.

3. Strategic positions.

4. Huge standing armies (from a military perspective).

5. Millions of youth.a. 45% of the youth in Paris are Muslim.

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b. In Belgium and Holland, one of two babies born is a Muslim. c. The youth are no longer a minority. In the divine plan, the youth are the

future.

6. Intellectuals and educational resources.

7. Many of the richest people on Earth.

8. History or power and respect.

9. Provided impetus for the European Renaissance. 10. Islam is the fastest growing religion on Earth.

a. In the Arctic circle, there are people of the native population, the Inuits and Nanovuts (the Eskimos), embracing Islam. A masjid by the name of Mosque of the Midnight Sun is being established and the Quran is being translated to Inaktutak.

Contradictions of the Muslim World: Along with the potential and great riches, there is also great:

1. Poverty

2. Frustration over minor differences of opinion

3. Debate

4. Defeat Surah Ra’ad, Ayah 11 [13:11]

ال يغي ر ما بقوم حت ى يغي روا ما بأنفسهم.إن للا

“...Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves.” The masaajid and communities are disconnected, mentally, if not physically. How can Muslims bring about change here in the West?

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10 Crucial Aspects of Islamic Revival in the West: *Based on 30+ years of Shaykh Abdullah Hakim Quick’s experience*

1. Ziyaadat at-Taqwa – Increase in Taqwa (Consciousness of Allah) a. Surround yourself with people who remind you of Allah. b. Taqwa drives Muslims. The more you have, the stronger you will be. c. Do good deeds secretly as you do publicly and it will increase you in

Taqwa. i. Observe how you pray. Make your prayer alone better than your

prayer in public.

2. Separate Islam from culture a. If Islam was related to culture, then we would have a 100 different

religions. b. Islam is what unites us all. c. Don’t base your deen on your language or ethnic group.

Surah Hujuraat, Ayah 13 [49:13]

. عند أكرمكم إن أتقاكم للا

“...Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you...”

3. Emphasis on Islamic Character (Akhlaq)

4. Aim on Wisdom and Balance a. Make duaa for Allah to grant you Hikmah (wisdom)

i. Hikmah means putting things in their proper places. b. Wisdom is an important element of success. Wisdom does not have to do

with book knowledge. Wisdom is how you implement your Islam. c. Wisdom gives us the right balance. What’s killing our communities is

extremism. i. We are Ummatun Wasata (Surah Baqarah, Ayah 143). We are a

balanced nation.

Sahl ibn Sa’d reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said,

عليه وسلم صلى للا سهل بن سعد الساعدي قال قال رسول للا

والعجلة من الشيطان. الناة من للا

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“Clemency is from Allah and haste is from Shaytan.” [at-Tirmidhi]

5. Healthy Empowered Families a. Stability is what has kept the Muslim world afloat for centuries. The

stability gives us a positive outlook. Unfortunately, divorce is on the rise of Western countries and is amongst us.

b. Those who are embracing Islam among the First Nations, African Americans, and Latinos have been faced with organized destruction of families.

c. Heat purifies metal. We as the Ummah are being purified. i. Tamhees – purification by heat.

d. When families are strong, the whole community is strong; when families are weak, the whole community is weak.

Abu Burda narrated that his father said,

ه، أن النبي صلى هللا عليه وسلم بعث معاذا وأبا موسى عن أبيه، عن جد

را وال تنف را، وتطاوعا وال تختلفاليمن قال إلى ا را، وبش را وال تعس .يس

“The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sent Mu’adh ibn Jabal and Abu Musa Al-Ash’ari to Yemen telling them, “Treat the people with ease and do not be hard on them. Give glad tidings and do not fill them with aversion. And love each other, and do not differ.” [Bukhari]

e. Communicate with your spouses, parents, kids, etc. We are strong when

we come together. f. Healthy - eat halal and wholesome foods. g. Empowered: gain education, skills, ability to provide for oneself. h. Empowerment: knowing our history.

6. Shura (Mutual Consultation) in all affairs

a. Discuss. Talk. b. In families: husband and wife need to communicate; parents and children

need to communicate. c. In communities:

i. From Prophet’s life: 1. Despite being a Prophet, Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) consulted the Muslim community.

ii. During the time of battles and wars, Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) could have waited for Jibraeel (‘alayhi salaam) to bring directions from Allah, but instead he called the Muslims and

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discussed the matters together. During the Battle of Khandaq, Salman Al-Farsi provided the idea of the building a trench.

d. Surah Baqarah, Ayah 111 [2:111]

. صادقين كنتم إن برهانكم هاتوا قل

“...Say, Bring your proof, if you indeed are truthful.”

7. Cooperation and Unity a. Different mosque? Different school? The philosophy should be: “I can still

benefit from you.” b. Operational Unity - recognize that we all have difference strengths and

weaknesses and still benefit from each other. i. Example - Ibn Masood was a great reciter and reader of Quran

(master of the book of Allah). Khalid ibn was a great warrior. It is said that when it was time for salah, they would look for Ibn Masood to lead salah, not Khalid. Khalid, a warrior and a strong man, would stand behind Ibn Masood and offer salah. During battles and wars, Khalid was put in the front to lead the salah and be the leader.

ii. When it came to utilizing each other’s strengths, they put their differences aside.

iii. Your fingers are different shapes. Each finger is no good by itself. But with all of them connected (your hand), you can achieve a lot.

8. Female Involvement in All Aspects of Life a. Women need to be involved in all areas. b. When the Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) first received

revelation, his wife, Khadijah (radhiAllahu ‘anha) consoled and solidified him.

c. Sumayyah (radhiAllahu ‘anha) was the first Shaheed (martyr). d. A’ishah (radhiAllahu ‘anha) was the second most prolific narrator of

Hadith. e. When the men are most intolerant of their women (sisters/wives), they

are intolerant of each other. i. Can’t take difference of opinions.

f. There needs to be a beautiful blending of both sides.

9. Youth in Leadership

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a. Youth are the future. They have to be involved especially at the level of board of directors and the executive committees of masaajid.

b. Youth develop a positive and all inclusive form of Islam. i. It is narrow-mindedness that has caused all of these problems.

10. Provide Islamic Solutions to All Societies’ Problems in the Name of

Allah a. The best form of Da’wah is to do good deeds and raise quality of people’s

lives (Muslim and Non-Muslim) for the sake of Allah. This is the strongest form of dawah, not debating or arguing.

The Mission of Strangers Near The End of Time: We need to bring back Islam to a form where we can apply it to the 21st century. This ummah has been blessed with the ability to renew Islam. Tajdeed (revival) is the reason we still exist. Tajdeed (revival) starts from within. In order to bring about change in the world, it is crucial to first fix ourselves. Fix our character and internal standing. Then you move gradually. To your family, the community next and by large you will make global changes. It’s not easy. Often times, it means going against your culture which will lead to you being labeled as “strange”. We don’t take interest when we go to the bank, we wear more clothes in the summer while others take them off, we are happy without drugs/intoxicants, etc., but they still call us strange. It has been narrated that the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said,

صلى هللا عليه وسلم بدأ اإلسالم غريبا عن أبي هريرة قال قال رسول للا

.وسيعود كما بدأ غريبا فطوبى للغرباء

“Indeed, Islam began as something strange and it will return to being strange as it began. So give glad tidings to the strangers.” [at-Tirmidhi] *The strangers are those who repair themselves and others who have become corrupt.* The Importance of Historical Clarity For The Confusion Of Our Times: Masaajid emphasize learning ‘Aqeedah, Fiqh, Hadith, and Arabic. There is great importance in learning usool, but scholars are now saying that it is increasingly more crucial in Islamic scholarship to study history.

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One of the greatest genocides in history was when Columbus entered the Americas. Approximately 75 million indigenous people were wiped out. Following this big crime was the another great crime - the destruction of knowledge. After conquering American lands, the Spanish conquistadors gathered all their writings in the middle of town and then burned them. The same was done in Toledo, Granada, and Qurtuba. Burning literature is destroying people’s memories. When the Serbians attacked Bosnia, they not only killed people, but also destroyed the madrasas, schools, and museums. When the colonial powers came, they didn’t burn the books, but rather stole them and place them in their libraries. Till this day, the best documents of the Muslim world can be found in London - University of Oxford. When people’s memories are destroyed, they can be enslaved because they don’t know who they are. Even when the chains are taken off, they’re still slaves (mental chains) because they don’t believe that they have a past. Black History Month: Black History Week was started by Carter G. Woodson in 1926 because there was absolutely no history of Africa in textbooks. If there happen to be any information available on it, it was negative. In 1976, Black History Week evolved into Black History Month in the U.S. with February as the designated month. In 1995, the Canadian government adopted Black History Month as well. Why Study History: Somebody might still say: “I don’t get it. What is the point of history?” If someone took a photo of the class, the first person in the photo you would look at is yourself. When you study history and you don’t see yourself in the books, you are not going to be interested and fall asleep in history class. That’s why some don’t get the point of history; they don’t find themselves and their ancestors in history. Over 1/3rd of the Quran are stories of history/Divine Insight into past human experience.

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Scholars have found that 1/3 of the Quran is history including qasas al-anbiya (stories of the prophets), stories of creation, and stories of life. History was given to us in order for us to take gems of wisdom, understand people of the past, and obtain wisdom to understand the future. Asbaab un-nuzul is the history of ayah which is an in-depth understanding of the ayah, the circumstances in which ayat were revealed, how it affected the prophet Muhammad (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam), and how it can affect us. When you understand Islamic history, you will learn how to use the Quran in your life because it will provide you with a greater understanding of your identity in history. History gives us perspective. Studying history shows us universal, fixed principles. Laws, fixed principles in the world, and principles of science are the basis of physical sciences. Fixed principles is why humans are able to fly airplanes, make advances in medicine and technology, etc. Similarly, there are fixed principles in the rise and fall of nations - what elevated people and what brought them down. This is very critical for us in understanding our history and learning from it.

Surah Yusuf, Ayah 111 [12:111]

. األلباب ألولي عبرة قصصهم في كان لقد

“Surely there was in their stories a lesson for the men of understanding...”

There are great lessons for people of understanding, people who go deeper beyond the surface. They don’t just have sight; they have insight. This is critical today. When an event happens in the world and you don’t know the history of the country, then you won’t understand what is going on. However, if you know, you can reflect deeply on the changes happening, why they are occurring, and what it means in the larger context.

Surah A’raf, Ayah 176 [7:176]

فاقصص القصص لعلهم يتفكرون.

“...So relate the stories in order that they may reflect.” This is a command from Allah. This is why we study history; it’s a critical subject for us Muslims in the Americas.

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When America was Founded: America was just 13 colonies on the East Coast at first. They were under attack by the most powerful nation, Britain. As the 13 colonies came together and struggled under terrible conditions, they realized they needed to be recognized. There was even a conference held in Philadelphia to decide on the official language of the country; the options were English, French, and German. The first country to recognize America was Morocco. George Washington wrote a letter to Sultan Muhammad ibn Abdullah, which is on display and available for viewing today in Morocco. The letter consisted of a treaty which opened up certain areas in the Mediterranean for America to move around. Today they say, “Muslims hate us,” but the reality is that Muslims were the first people to recognize them. Without Muslims, America may not have existed. By knowing your history, you will be able to stand up for yourself and be confident. If you don’t know your history, you start to believe that you are the losers. The goal of this course is to extract gems of wisdom and expand our consciousness. The basic methodology in studying history as used in this course is:

1. Usool at-Tareekh – The Foundations of Historical Methodology; the approach of studying history.

2. Maaddat at-Tareekh – The subject matter of this history. 3. Fiqh at-Tareekh – Understanding history; pondering on lessons learned upon

ending study of history. What’s in a name? Names rewrite history.

1. The TV show, Game of Thrones, was shot in Spain among Islamic architecture and the clothing resembles the clothing of the Muslims. It makes us think that this is how the older Europeans lived – but that’s not true.

2. A study was done; a few people were brought it - someone who was physically challenged, an African person, a Muslim, and a native person. The researchers said a word and the four people had to state what they associated with it. When it came to the word Islam, almost 100% the words associated with Islam were terror, violence, and in some instances, ‘holy terror.’ This was all before 9/11.

To us Muslims, the word Islam evokes feelings of happiness and brings to mind images of beauty. To others the same word reminds them of terror.

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Q&A:

1. We have taken our own weakness and tried to make a religion out of it. How do we prevent the men from keeping women out of the masjid?

a. Use technology. There are masajid that use one way glass to separate the brothers and sisters sections, so that brothers don’t see the sisters but the sisters see the Imam on the brother’s side.

2. Can you elaborate on point 4 (Aim for Wisdom and Balance) in the 10 Crucial Aspects of Islamic Revival in the West?

a. Wisdom is putting things in the right place - how you practice your Islam, how you make decisions, making decisions together, taking opinions, etc. There is beauty in our Sunnah, the flexibility, and the different madhahib. Wisdom is with age, taken from the quran, and sometimes just a gift from Allah.

3. How can the youth wiggle their way into executive boards?

a. The youth need to mobilize. The adults will see the force and respect the force.

b. Even if the youth can’t get to the board, they can challenge and attend meetings, shoulder to shoulder. The elders tend to feel nervous around the youth.

c. The sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam): there were youth around him constantly involved, ready, eager, and helpful. So when a leader was needed, the Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) naturally turned to them and gave them the positions.

4. How do we recognize our black brothers and sisters? a. Allah says: “...and We made you into nations and tribes that you may get

to know one another…” (Surah Hujurat, Ayah 13). It’s a matter of getting to know each other. We need to learn about each other. It’s because of the struggles of the Indigenous people that we have the freedom and opportunities we have now.

b. The first stage of revolution is anarchy. Anarchy turns into something organized.

i. The Black Lives Matter movement is anarchy. We need to work towards organization. We need to help, but from a distance…because they are in anarchy now.

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c. We will not sacrifice our lifestyle, our Islamic lifestyle. But we stand against oppression when we can. Wisdom is required here to learn how to deal with people.

5. How can one build a halal and wholesome family?

a. Halal and wholesome (Halalun Tayyibah: both halal and good (healthy) with regards to family.

b. To be empowered, sisters must be educated and stand up. c. Know our history from the Islamic perspective.

6. What should the priority be for the youth?

a. Develop our own identity as Muslims. b. Appreciate that we are not involved in what most of society is involved in.

For example, we are a drug-free society. c. Don’t sacrifice principles, but still remain approachable. d. Join hands. For example, if you escaped drugs, help others escape too.

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Euro-Centric thinking has had a profound impact on our perception of ourselves as

humanity in the 21st century.

Europe is always depicted as “up” or north and civilized and developed. Greenwich

Mean Time is universally accepted as the base of all time zones.

Based on a different vantage point in the cosmos, Cape Town could be the top of

the northern hemisphere and Timbuktu could be the basis of time. Muslims and

non-European people need to deconstruct His-Story (history) and relate events from

their own perspective.

Eurocentrism is ingrained in our thoughts and the ways in which we perceive the world. • Greenwich Mean Time; Middle East/Far East; Global North/South -- these are all

in reference to Europe. When Shaykh Abdullah Hakim Quick was in Cape Town, he noticed that the sky was above him and the earth was below him - “I was at the top.” The way the map is drawn is very Eurocentric. There are examples of maps, drawn by Muslims, depicting Europe on the bottom.

Even the size of Africa was distorted on the maps as in the case of the maps of

Gerhard Mercator, the 16th century European cartographer.

Africa is larger than India and China put together and capable of absorbing many

times over the acreage of all the colonial powers that have

ravished its land over the centuries.

Based on the European map, we would think that the Nile River flows from the North to the South. In fact, the Nile flows from the South to the North. The mountains are in the South. In 3200 BC, when Menes united the two Egyptian Kingdoms, he came from the South and united them with the North. By 3000 BC, they had started building pyramids. 2460 BC, the Great Pyramid of Giza: This building, 4500 years old, is still standing today. The people who built it were the black people of Nubia, the Old Kingdom. The “old kingdom” of Egypt consisted of Nubians (African people who came from the Nubian region, aka Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia). The Israelites came later. Egyptian culture and philosophy were established far before the Israelites came into Egypt. The Israelites did not build the pyramids; they were built long before the Israelites. The ancient writing documents the people who built the pyramids were “the Egyptians who were dark skinned people with wooly hair.”

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The pyramids were made with perfect right triangles and physics and yet the Greeks are given “credit” for being the backbone of modern mathematics and philosophy and starting civilization. However, the knowledge was already present from the Islamic World. Greek civilization came in only around 600 BC, hundreds of years after advanced African civilizations!! They borrowed African ideas and codified it in their own way. The African continent was shown to be smaller than it actually is on maps because it made it easier to colonize.

• “The first thing you have to colonize is the mind to subjugate a people.” If you’re going to think small, you’re going to act small.

We must constantly deconstruct history. To be truthful, Europe should be the third world. China, Mesopotamia, India were well civilized before Europe.

For years, students have been told that Christopher Columbus discovered America

in 1492. In reality, he was lost and thought he was in India. When he returned to

Spain, he could not properly describe where he had been.

For somewhere between 10-30,000 years, human beings have populated the

Americas and succeeded in developing highly sophisticated societies.

In deconstructing the Columbus Myth, historians should be honest and say

“Columbus was discovered in 1492!”

The indigenous people rebelled against this idea of Columbus coming in his tiny boat. The Aztecs and Incas had the largest cities in the world at the time of Columbus. There were people living in the Americas, in well-organized civilizations, for at least 10,000 years. How could the conquistadors say they discovered this?! The temples found in Mexico are huge. How long had this civilization been growing and learning in order to create a structure like the temple? How much development in technology did they experience to be able to create it?

• Like the pyramids, these temples were built with ingenuity. Until now, no building can compare to The Great Pyramid of Giza which is built to stand without any cement holding the blocks together! Western historians tried to provide an explanation for this by saying that these buildings were built by aliens, that the Africans could not have built these pyramids, and the Mexicans could not have built these temples.

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The Europeans had a superiority complex, which led to the non-Europeans developing an inferiority complex. The use of the words “black” and “white” and their connotation in the West (based on the problematic dictionary definition) is a huge problem.

• Why is black magic called “black” magic and white magic called “white” magic? o Black is used for negativity and degeneration. It portrays evil, gloom, and

all bad things. o “White Christmas” does not refer to snow because it was used in Trinidad

where it doesn’t snow. The dictionary definition of white is, “innocent; pure; holy.” A “white” Christmas is a “holy” Christmas.

▪ The worst of these is the depiction of ‘Isa (AS) as a white man to project an image of an entire race. If that was the image of the son of God, then anyone who looks like him becomes holy. This makes all white men “holy” or the superior person. The portrait of Jesus was in fact that of the uncle of Michelangelo.

Muslims need to benefit from the true lessons of those who

lived in earlier times. Muslims should not be Euro-centric, Afro-centric or Indo-

centric but “Makkah-centric”.

History needs to be “our story” not “his-story”.

Bias affects Islamophobia. Islamophobia began during the “Dark Ages” or rather the “Golden Ages” for Muslims. Islamophobia is not new, and it started from the time of the Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam). The Quraish wanted to get rid of the Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) and his message. They would attack the message instead of killing him as it would simply cause warfare. They gathered in the Nadwa section of Makkah and they consulted Waleed bin Mughirah on the best way to ruin the prophet Muhammed (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam). They tried to label him as other than a prophet.

• Kaahin - wizard o Waleed liked to be honest and straightforward so he said, “No, he is

obviously not a wizard. He doesn’t look or act like one.” • Majnoon - crazy

o “But he isn’t. He is a calm and collected person. He doesn’t have the signs of insanity.”

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• Shaa’ir - poet o “But the Qur’an isn’t poetry.” This is not rhymed prose. The Arabs knew

poetry, and this was not poetry. • Sahir - magician

o “But he doesn’t blow into knots (and other practices of the magicians).” At last there were no other names to call him, so they thought: Let’s call him a Sahir, because he breaks up families [through the call to Islam]. Attack of Abu Jahl and Al ‘Aas ibn Waa’il: They approached caravans and spread rumors calling the prophet Muhammed (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) Al-Abtar (cut off). “Leave him, he is cut off from male offspring, hopeless, and without a future.” In response to the Prophet’s sadness, Allah revealed Surah Kawthar. It is such a small surah, but it is continuously expanding. This surah is usually known to refer only to the Fountain of Kawthar in Jannah. The word kawthar is a mutlaq (open-ended) word. The best translation of Al-Kawthar is “abundance.”

Surah Kawthar, Ayah 1 [108:1]

إنا أعطيناك الكوثر.

“Indeed, we have given you an abundance”: • The Quran is an abundance. • The followers of Islam are in abundance, and continuously growing. • When we hear his (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) name, we pray for him, “sallallahu

‘alayhi wa sallam.” • “The one who assaults you will be cut off, but we will give you abundance.”

o No one knows of Al ‘Aas. But everyone knows ‘Amr ibn al ‘Aas (ra) and his son, ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr al ‘Aas. In the end, Al ‘Aas was abtar.

o Today, Muhammad is the most popular name in the world.

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The term “Dark Ages” is usually used to describe an era that spanned some 1000

years between 400-1500 A.D. Undoubtedly, Europe had sunken into a state of

ignorance, barbarism and gloom, but this territory only constituted a small portion of

the known world.

The “Dark Ages” of Europe is the “Golden Age” of Islam.

The world of Islam experienced a “Golden Age” of discovery and achievement

between 622-1492 A.D. The message of tawhid had spread from Arabia to China in

the east, the Atlantic Ocean in the west, the Russian steppes in the north and the

East African coast in the south within 100 years! Society after society entered Islam

without compulsion and remained that way for hundreds of years. This is a

phenomenon unparalleled in history!

The concept of tawhid (monotheism and unity) after confirming the Unity of God,

united humanity into one single family and considered knowledge as a blessing

wherever it was encountered. The Prophet Muhammad (sallalla hu ‘alayhi wa sallam)

once said: “Wisdom (knowledge) is the lost property of the Believer. He is most

deserving of it, anywhere he encounters it.” (authentic hadith)

Tawhid is oneness throughout race, ethnicity, gender, and nationality and the merging of secular and religious knowledge.

Muslims possessed something unheard of in the 7th century: open minds. They not

only stumbled upon the teachings of the ancient societies as they traveled throughout

the earth, they searched for it! Within a short period of time, they were able to

recover much of the earliest sources of wisdom of human civilization. They

assembled the writings of the ancient Egyptians, Indians, Syrians, Persians, Greeks

and other people.

The Muslims possessed open minds. The Arabs had an amazing grasp on knowledge; they had the knowledge of language and great etiquette, but they lacked technology. When the message of Islam went out, and they traveled out of Arabia, they met the knowledge of the ancient Egyptians, Syrians, and others. Instead of destroying the knowledge, they assimilated. They absorbed the technology and expanded the knowledge. You can logically see the growth. You can see how the empire rose, grew, and developed.

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Muslims naturally dealt with astronomy as they needed to find the Qiblah and figure out accurate salah timings. They excelled in astronomy. They took the knowledge of the

ancient ones and put it into practical form. Knowledge of geography was needed for travel to hajj. Hundreds of geography books were written. They were meticulous in describing the climate of the lands, detailing extensive road maps of the geography, writing on the characters of the people there, and sometimes included some history of the people.

Storehouses of knowledge were found in libraries of Alexandria and Constantinople, and

in the dust of monasteries and temples.

These scholarly writings were translated and often assimilated into Islamic thought. Most of

this translation occurred in a 200-year period spanning the 9th-11th centuries. In some

cases, Muslim rulers paid translators the weight of the book in gold as an incentive. The

most prestigious center of learning was Baghdad’s Bayt’l-Hikmah that lead the way in the

800’s.

Muslim scientists from all over the world gathered together with scholars from Hindu,

Buddhist, Christian, Jewish or even Zoroastrian background. In the halls of Baghdad,

Cordoba, Cairo and other centers of Islam, they developed the scientific method and

perfected it by performing precise experiments based on their own theories and those of

the ancients.

Most history books entirely omit the contributions made by Muslim scholars during this

period, but an objective look at the sources of modern science and scholarship will show

that not only did the Muslims preserve ancient knowledge, but also, they laid down the

foundations of modern thought.

Bayt al-Hikmah (The House of Wisdom): This was the Muslim “Think Tank” of the 9th - 11th centuries. The government would fund the search for knowledge with zakat. They developed and perfected the scientific method. The Development of Algebra: As the city of Baghdad expanded, Caliph Mamun searched for a means of solving problems of inheritance, land divisions, finances, zakat, construction, agriculture, navigation, and booty distribution. He needed a systematic way to determine through fractions. So he summoned Al-Khwarizmi. Al-Khwarizmi worked with others on this research and later published Kitaab al Mukhtasar fi Hisab al Jabr wa al Muqabalah.

“Al-Jabr is where

the word “algebra”

came from.

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List of sciences originated by Muslims:

Algebra, Anesthesia, Biology, Botany, Cardiology, Chemistry, Dermatology,

Embryology, Emergency Medicine, Geology, Metallurgy, Modern Surgery, Modern

Medicine, Modern Arithmetic, Optics, Parasitology, Pharmacology, Pulmonary

Medicine, Toxicology, and Urology

List of sciences advanced by Muslims:

Acoustics, Agronomy, Anatomy, Calculus, Electrochemistry, Engineering, Genetics,

Geometry, Geophysics, Meteorology, Physics, Taxonomy, Thermodynamics and

Zoology.

Latin names of some of the famous Muslim scholars:

Averroes (Ibn Rushd), Avenzoar (Ibn Zuhr), Avincenna (Ibn Sina) Alpetragius (Al-

Bitruji), Alhazen (Al-Haytham), Alkindi (Al-Kindi), Albucasis (Al-Zahrawi),

Algorismus (Al-Khwarizimi), Albategnius (Al-Battani), Rhases (Ar-Razi), Jabir (Ja bir

bin Hayyan), and Omar Khayyam (‘Umar Al-Khayyam).

List of some of the substances and devices introduced to Europe by Muslims:

Pendulums, cotton, paper, glass mirrors, crystal, street lamps, colored glass, satin,

pepper, paper money, postage stamps, book binding, clocks, soap, astrolabes,

compasses, slide rules, flasks, surgical instruments, windmills, artificial teeth,

spinning wheel (for textiles), globes, citrus fruits, eye glasses, porcelain, gun powder,

cables (shipping), velvet, almanacs, encyclopedias, saddles, and leather shoes.

In the 1930’s Walt Taylor recorded approximately 1,000 English words of Arabic

origin.

List of some of the English words of Arabic origin:

Admiral (amir’-bahr), alcohol (al-quhul), alcove (al-qubba), algebra (al-jabr),

algorithim (al- khawarizimi), almanac (al-mana kh), amber (‘anbar), arsenal (dar

sina ‘ah), assassin (hashsha shin), caliber (qalib), camphor (kafur), cheque (sakk),

chemistry (al-kimiya), cotton (qutn), lemon (leymun), magazine (makha zin), mattress

(matrah), monsoon (mawsim), sugar (sukkar), syrup (sharab), typhoon (tufan), and

zero (sifr).

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As the number of Muslim scholars were so vast, the Europeans decided they could not give the Islamic world so much credit. Therefore, they gave many Muslim scholars Europeanized names.

• Ibn Rushd became Averroes. • Ibn Sina became Avicenna. • Ibn Zuhr became Avenzoar.

There is a whole list of other Muslim scholars that many would not recognize as coming from the Islamic World. In the Islamic World, Muslims, Christians, and Jews all studied for free. There was tolerance for others. Europeans came to study in these Islamic circles and then took our knowledge and founded their own universities.

With the Golden Age of Islamic learning in mind, the European Renaissance must

be regarded as a by-product of Islamic advances. Beginning in the 12th century,

Islamic works in sciences, philosophy and literature were translated into Latin. At

that time, Europe was devoid of books. There were no public libraries in all of

Europe while Baghdad had thirty-six, Cairo had twenty and Cordoba had seventeen.

The scholars of Europe recognized the achievement of the Muslims and began to

frantically translate their works. Thousands of Latin renditions were produced

mainly in the 13th-15th centuries.

The “Renaissance of Europe” is actually the “rebirth” of science. Their greatest achievement is the translation of our texts. A little joke (based on fact): Isaac Newton on the tree -- he probably sat on the tree with a Muslim book on gravity in one hand and an apple in the other. This is one of the greatest cover ups in history. We can say with certainty that Europe owes a debt to the Islamic World. The Renaissance started with the Muslims. The coverup in Spain is strange because the majority of Muslims in Al-Andalus were Europeans. When the Muslims entered Spain, the people there were called Vandals; they were a Germanic people. They called the land Vandalusia. The Romans were scared of them

In Oxford University,

they found “Allah”

written on the ceiling of

one of the original rooms.

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and knew them as a people of destruction - vandalism. It later became known as Andalusia. Then Arabicized to Al-Andalus- the Land of the Vandals. They intermarried with the Arabs. The Muslim population was small when they first came but then they migrated over time and began inter-marrying. In the year 1000, Qurtoba (Cordoba, the capital at the time) was the largest city on earth - close to about a million people. They had public streets and street lamps and complex systems. It took 700 years for France to catch up to this system. It took Spain and France 700 years to reach our level. They were in the dark ages. The lights were off in Europe, and it suddenly turned back on...after they translated our books. We had the technology, we knew the world. And, we had the right knowledge. To be Muslims then meant to be hardworking. The Vandals were not proud of their heritage. Unlike them, the Muslims were great, hardworking, and honest people.

This massive transfer of knowledge came about because there were European

scholars who stayed in Islamic Spain. Gerard of Cremona (d. 1187) spent many

years in Toledo and translated over 90 Arabic works into Latin. This included

Ptolemy’s Almagest and Ibn Sina’s Canon of Medicine. In addition to this, paper

manufacturing had been introduced into Europe when Christian armies succeeded

in capturing cities like Toledo by the 11th century. They found the works intact and

relied on Spanish Jews to carry out the translations.

Europeans scholars made great contributions to science and literature but to omit

the Islamic achievements of this age is one of the greatest deceptions in history -

HIS-STORY!!!

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Q&A:

1. What allowed the earliest people to create such amazing technology? a. We are made to think that back then people were cavemen and that they

couldn’t think. They actually had big brains. No one has built a structure like the Great pyramid of Giza till this day. It was made with millions of blocks of granite without any cement to hold them together. The ancient Egyptians were not Mediterranean people like they want us to believe. In the Old Kingdom, Greece did not exist nor did the Assyrians. The people from Aswaan to the Sudan, the Nubians, were the Ancient Egyptians--they were black.

2. What led to the fall of the Islamic Civilization in Spain?

a. Ibn Khaldun (Father of Sociology) studied the rise and fall of dynasties. i. The conquerors, the first generation, are courageous and moral and

live simple lives. ii. The children still have a simple life, and they maintain some of

those qualities. iii. The third generation start to lose the history and motivation of the

first generation. They are born in the palace and are raised with a silver spoon.

iv. With the next generation, the materialism starts to play a big role. 1. Ibn Khaldun said, “We rose when we stuck to the Sunnah

(living simply, strong, healthy, moral), then materialism came in.”

b. This can be seen in the Islamic empires. To foster materialism, they start taking from the poor, and tribalism starts to creep in. In Spain, a civil war erupted and that’s when the Trinitarian Christians in France came forth and started conquering Spain, little by little. Muslims started to work with the Christians against other Muslims and then the Christians killed them. And it was only a downward spiral from there.

c. The Muslims were divided and conquered by things that are antithetical to the Sunnah: materialism and tribalism. When justice is established, zakat is given and we rise.

d. This is sunnat ul-Allah. When a nation corrupts, Allah brings them down - just like previous nations. The only difference is that we have the Quran, so we are able to jump back.

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The First Nations

As many as 75 million people lived in the Americas before Columbus and spoke as

much as 2,000 mutually unintelligible languages.

One half of the major crops in the world began in the Americas. Crops like corn,

potatoes, squash, chili, beans, gourds, acorns, walnuts, tomatoes, pumpkins,

artichokes, cassava, sweet potatoes cucumbers and watermelons have become staples

of international diets.

The word “native” in social experiments has proven to evoke images of the “drunk, poor, vagabond”. Early renderings of the Americas depict it as empty of civilization. In reality: there were over 75 million people and up to 2000 separate languages present. Cultures varied according to environment and religion was a binding factor.

The Northern Region:

The first migrations of people from Siberia took place between 10-30,000 years ago.

The early Americans crossed the Bering straits, penetrated the land mass and sailed

along the coastline to the south.

The very first First Nations people migrated from Siberia across the Bering Strait. Genghis Khan: His original name, Temuljin, is a Turkish name. The Mongols are related to the Turks. A large section of Genghis Khan’s army were Turkish – from Kazakhstan. When Genghis Khan came to Kazakhstan, a portion joined him and a portion refused. The Seljuk Turks migrated to the Abbasid lands and became Muslim. Seljuk nation: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrzygstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Northern Iran. This was the beginning of the Ottoman Empire. The Seljuk Turks came into Iran and Eastern Turkey. One of their leaders, Suleyman Shah, and eventually Osman Bey started the Ottoman empire. It was their other cousins from Siberia, on the other side of Mongolia, who migrated into America. The indigenous people of The North American Arctic were the cousins of the Turks.

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The first Canadians were Turks and until today the language remains similar. The Inuit language is a Turkic language. The Turkmen/Tajik/Uzbek people also resemble Canada’s First Nations people.

Hunters occupied the northern third of North America. Their game was mostly fish,

whales, seal, and elk. In the Eastern Arctic, they are known as Innuit and on the

western side they are Innuvaliut and Gwichin. They adapted skins, fur, bones and fat

to survive the harsh climate of the north.

When these people came into the Americas, they encountered the harsh, cold climates of the North. There was no one around and they had to develop technology to weather the climate and establish themselves - igloos. They learned to utilize fur and skin in a that way would keep them warm in the harsh weather.

Western North America:

This region distinguishes itself for its vast deserts, deep canyons, long rivers and

sweeping plains. The Hopi, Numic, Algoc, Navajos, Siouian, Anasazi and others

were all part of ancient societies that even possessed walled cities.

A group called the Anasazi (the old ones) built homes into the rocky sides of mountains (similar to those in North Africa). Homes of stone, like the ‘Aad and Thamud. It might have been a climactic change or loss of water that forced them to abandon the area.

Central and Eastern North America:

The Native people of this region were founders of rich, complex societies with

innovative political unions, democratic order, monotheistic theological concepts and

high culture. The Iroquois, Algonquin, Caddoan and Cherokee nations were part of

this highly sophisticated civilization.

Nearly half of the world’s agricultural products were introduced from the Americas. Their farming production alone was half of the world’s at that time. They produced corn, potatoes (which saved the people of Europe), tomatoes, chestnuts, pumpkin, cucumber, watermelon, and more.

When the First Nations

people saw polar bears they

called them “ayi”, the

Turkish word for “bear.”

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The main reason they could be defeated by Europeans was due to what we would now call “germ warfare.” They were infected by European diseases that they were not immune to.

One of the most significant developments was the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Multi-

National federation for mutual defense and democratic order. This later became the

basis of the Constitution of the U.S.A.

Iroquois Confederation: Iroquois symbol was an eagle grasping 6 arrows. The United States took it for their seal and their symbol now is an eagle grasping 13 arrows. The idea of a Confederation was also taken from the Iroquois. The Native people did not have much of a hierarchy; they had a system like our Islamic Shura. American society did not have women in the leadership until the 20th century and there were no property rights. The natives believed in “the natural rights of humanity.” They believed in the right of the environment: respect for animals and respect for water. We are only now visiting this environmentalist idea after we polluted and destroyed the environment. Monotheism: The Mikmaq people called the Creator, Nikskam. Their clothing was similar to that of the Mongolian and Kazakhstan region. They were fully covered. A document of the Mikmaq Circle reads: “When Nikskam the Creator brought down Nakosek, the son, to create all living things, the first world was destroyed by earthquakes and floods and the Mikmaq people found themselves unified in one tongue.” Surah Nahl, Ayah 36 [16:36]

واجتنبوا الطاغوت فمنهم من ة رسوال أن اعبدوا للا ولقد بعثنا في كل أم ومنهم من حقت عليه الضل لة فسيروا في األرض فانظروا كيف هدى للا

بين. كان عاقبة المكذ

“And We surely have sent to every nation a messenger saying, “Worship Allah, and avoid the Corruption. So from them were those whom Allah guided, and among them were those whom misguidance was decreed. So walk through the earth and observe how the ending was for those who denied.”

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King Henry the 7th to John Cabot: “Conquer, occupy, and possess the lands of the heathens and infidels.” They considered America to be “terra nullius” - “a vacant territory”, that the people were animals and so, they did whatever they could to capture and control them. Nothing done to the natives would be considered to be a crime. “Thanksgiving” is really the Europeans thanking God for clearing the land of the Indigenous peoples living there. After the diseases spread, they found the people strewn on the land. They dug a trench and buried them, while the fields of crops and animals all remained healthy. Then, they sat down for a thanksgiving dinner. Central America:

These were highly developed societies that stretched back thousands of years.

Around 1500 B.C., the Olmecs developed a highly sophisticated civilization. By 600

C.E., the Mayans had built huge pyramids and developed complex calendars. The

Aztecs continued this development and boasted urban complexes of over 25 million

people.

Their cities were as large as the greatest cities in the world at that time.

Islands of the Caribbean:

This 1,500 mile archipelago located in tropical island climate hosted Arawaks,

Caribs and other Nations. They were highly sensitive people, master seamen with

high philosophy, medicine, and stable political order. The Indigenous people were

almost wiped out by European conquest due to brutality, disease and deception.

Lucayan Civilization: Columbus’ men at first believed the Natives were the subjects of China. The people of the islands called Columbus and his fleet the “Demons of the Night Forest,” aka the people of death. The indigenous people gave gifts to them including small pieces of gold. Columbus and the others went berserk when they found out there was gold there and completely wiped out the islands. The Puerto Rican people are the only surviving Ta’ino people.

In the Turks and

Caicos Islands, there is

a Muslim community

till this day.

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South America:

In this vast area, there were numerous languages and cultures. The landscape

included the Amazon river, mountains, coastal regions, open plains, and even Arctic

climate in the south. Ancient civilizations sprung up in Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Chile,

Bolivia, Argentina and Columbia. Of these, the Inca civilization was the most

developed.

The people built roads, tunnels, and aqueducts, and they developed medicine. They were a great and developed empire, yet you say “you discovered the place?!” That these were “vacant lands?!” This is considered to be the greatest genocide in human history, greater than the number of people Genghis Khan slaughtered and greater than the deaths of the Holocaust. With other genocides, the nations were able to rise back. But the First Nations were wiped out, enslaved, and then thrown onto reservations after taking treaty land. America is just 200+ years old, while these are 10000 years of documented history.

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Before and around Columbus, there were other European travelers to the Americas. • 11th century: Leif Ericsson, the Vikings were the first Europeans who traveled to

the Americas. They settled in New Foundland in Canada along with Greenland and Iceland.

• John Cabot (English, 1497) went across into New Foundland. • Jacques Cartier (French, 1534) traveled to Eastern Canada (Ka Na Ta – Iroquois

word for large village). There he met the Mikmaq. • Amerigo Vespucci (Italian, 1499) went to the tropic area for Portugal and Spain.

Theoretically, he split the lands into continents which is why America is named after him (Martin Valsimula (German) named America after Amerigo).

They named Columbus as the discoverer of America due to the Spanish domination.

Astronomy was one of the first sciences that Muslim scholars were attracted to. The

importance of the direction of Makkah as the qiblah of prayer and the place of the

Pilgrimage made all Muslims concerned with direction and their relationship with

the heavens.

During the Golden Age of Islam, astronomy became a precise science for the first

time. Muslim astronomers understood that the spherical shaped earth rotated on its

axis and revolved around the sun.

In 830 A.D. Caliph Al-Ma’mun of Baghdad, who established Bayt’l-Hikmah,

commissioned his astronomers to study the findings of Ptolemy, Greece’s greatest

astronomer. One of his staff, Al-Farghani, published a book that became the main

authority for astronomy in Western Asia and Europe for nearly 700 years!

Muslim scientists mastered the art of the production of astronomical instruments

such as the astrolabe, quadrants, sextants, and armillaries of various types. Even

European explorers like Columbus, Vasco da Gama and Magellan used Islamic

astrolabes and often had Muslims to operate them.

Muslims made astounding achievements with regards to travel. They developed the magnetic needle. The first compass (the magnetic needle) was a Muslim discovery that changed travel completely, especially in the darkness of the sea. From this came about astrolabes, quadrants, sextants, modern compasses, and more.

The people of Oman were some

of the greatest sailors of all time;

some of them reached modern

day Korea and Japan before the

time of the Prophet Muhammad

(sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam).

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Ibn Battuta, the greatest traveler in history, covered 75,000 miles at a time when

there was no advanced method of travel. In 1325, he left his home in Tangiers,

Morocco, and stayed on the road for 30 years, recording societies in the remotest

parts of the world.

His is the longest documented travel – longer than Marco Polo’s. He was a faqih and was called to judge in different courts around Asia and Africa (this is one of the reasons he traveled to so many different cities). As he traveled, he integrated into the culture which was very common at the time.

Muslim accomplishments in geography were staggering as geographers of Islam

wrote thousands of pages about the lands and peoples of the world. They published

the world’s first almanacs, atlases and encyclopedias as well as producing complex

road maps and globes. Perhaps their most astounding achievement was the

development of the magnetic needle that led to the first true compass!

During this era, the whole of Europe believed that the earth was flat and those who

tried to prove otherwise were persecuted, tortured, imprisoned and executed.

Early Mention of the Americas: • 956 AD: Al Mas’udi - “Muruuj al Dhahab wa Ma’adin al-Jawhar” • 999 AD: Abu Bakr Ibn ‘Umar Al Qutiyya • 11th century: Al Idrisi “Kitaab al Mamaaliik wal Masaalik

In the 10th century, a brilliant scholar and traveler from Baghdad, Abu’l-Hasan ‘Ali

Al-Mas‘udi, travelled throughout the known world reaching Southern Africa, India,

China and Korea. In his famous book, Muruj al-Dhahab wa Ma‘a din al-Jawhar (The

Meadows of Gold and Quarries of Jewels), he intimately described the countries that

he had seen. He also drew a map of the world in 957 A.D. that showed an

“unknown territory” that could be the Americas!

There are many reports of men who went to travel, but no report of what happened when they reached there.

Al-Masudi wrote about a young man named Al-Kashqaas. Journey of Al-Khashqaas ibn Sayeed: He took a journey across the Atlantic and everyone in Al-Andalus knew about this journey because of how strange it was to actually return from such a trip. This clearly shows that many people had traveled in that direction before, but hadn’t returned.

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Al-Masudi’s map was discovered. It contained Africa, the Arab lands, India, and a section named Al-Majhoola: The Unknown Territory.

Abu ‘Abdulla h Muhammad Al-Idrisi, the top cartographer of the “Golden Age”

made an accurate globe of the world in the 12th century for Roger II, the King of

Sicily. He had also determined the sources of the Nile River and the cause of its

floods. He was the first geographer to apply scientific methods to the study of the

topography of the earth.

He knew that the world was round and made a very accurate globe.

Muslims were also great navigators and controlled the world’s shipping industry for

over five hundred years. They developed the lateen sail, modern rudders and made

possible deep-water exploration. Yet, almost no mention is made in European

history books of this amazing contribution to human civilization.

Around 956 A.D., Al-Mas‘u di wrote about the journey of a young man of Cordoba,

named Khashkhash ibn Sa‘id ibn Aswad. He had sailed into the Atlantic and made

contact with people on the other side. He returned in the year 889 A.D.

Abu Bakr ibn ‘Umar Al-Qutiyya wrote about Ibn Farrukh who visited the Canary

Islands in 999 A.D. and then returned.

In the 12th century, Al-Idrisi described in his extensive work, Kitab al-Mamalik wa’l-

Masa lik, a group of 8 seafarers who left Lisbon and entered the Atlantic Ocean.

They were caught in turbulence and were eventually captured and brought to a King

who had an Arabic translator who told them the journey home would take 2

months!

The fact that translators existed means that there was repeated contact between Arabs and the people on those islands. The Muslims knew there was a mass of land on the other side unlike Columbus and most explorers who didn’t know. In 1517 A.D., Piri Reis, a famous Turkish navigator, presented to the Ottoman

Sultan, Selim I, an astonishing map that depicted the accurate latitude and longitude

between Africa and South America! It also had details of the South American

coastline.

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The longitude and latitude was almost exact. If you want to erase the history of the Muslims travelling to the Americas, how do you explain such an accurate map being created within just 2 decades of Columbus landing in America?

A report in Before Columbus by Cyrus Gordon described coins found in the

southern Caribbean region: “...off the coast of Venezuela was discovered a hoard of

Mediterranean coins with so many duplicates that it cannot be a numismatist’s

collection. But rather a supply of cash. Nearly all the coins are Roman, from the

reign of Augustus to the 4th century A.D. Two of the coins however, are Arabic of

the 8th century. It is the latter that gives us the terminus a quo (i.e. time after which)

of the collection as a whole (which cannot be earlier than the latest coins in the

collection). Roman coins continued in use as currency into the medieval times. A Moorish ship, perhaps from Spain or North Africa, seems to have crossed the Atlantic around 800 A.D.”

Muslims were using the currents to cross the ocean. Thor Heyerdhal, the Norwegian

scientist, crossed the Atlantic from Safi, Morocco and landed in Barbados in the

West Indies in the 1960’s, thereby proving that pre-Columbus crossings were

possible.

Thor Heyerdahl wanted to prove that it was possible for people in Africa at the time to travel to the Americas easily. He built a ship called Ra II from Native African materials. He set sail from Safi, Morocco and landed in Barbados. He rode the currents which made it easy for ships to move between Africa and South America. They also make the distance seem shorter. Muslims regularly used these currents in the early times to travel. Zheng He was another Muslim traveler. The Ming dynasty captured young boys and castrated them to work in the palace as eunuchs. Zheng He was one of those boys. He grew to be very intelligent and powerful. He was assigned admiral of the Imperial Chinese fleet. His journeys took him to Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Eastern Africa, Yemen, and more. Some reports state that he made hajj. There are also some narrations that say he traveled to the coast of America.

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The first Muslims to enter into Africa entered during the first Hijrah as refugees who were given refugee by a Christian African King, Najashi. Islam spread across the Great Desert: “Ifrigo” means a sunny and warm place, which came from the Phoenicians and Greeks. This word was Arabicized to “Ifriqiyya”, which is where the word “Africa” came from.

In 734 CE, the governor of Ifriqiyya sent out a trade group.

In West Africa, large quantities of gold can be found. Below the Niger River, there are some of the most active gold mines of the world. However, what Muslims did was they revolutionized the gold and made trade routes across the desert. They dug wells along the trade route and made an oasis. The Sahara Desert was once a rainforest. It all changed due to the climate; it became a desert and is expanding till this day.

Islam reached the Mandinka in West Africa around

the 11th century but in 13th century, the King of

Mali accepted Islam. Al-Bakri wrote about this

encounter where a Muslim cleric succeeded in

convincing the king to believe in One God, Allah

through prayer and a miracle.

Mansa Sulayman (ruled 1337 ~ 1359 A.D.) built

mosques and strengthened Islamic culture throughout the empire. Ibn

Battuta visited Mali during his reign and was impressed by the security, the concern

for the study of the Qur’an and the elaborate public observance of Friday prayers

(jumu‘ah).

Mali then was bigger than Mali today. The Empire of Mali was one of the most prominent empires of the time. One of their famous leaders was Mansa Sulayman who was met by Ibn Battuta (Mansa means leader or Ameer). Ibn Battuta recalls in his writings that it was the safest place he journeyed to; everyone was wearing clean clothes and children were studying the Quran. When it was Jumu’ah time, the entire city would stop their activities and pray.

Mansa Musa made pilgrimage to Makkah in 1324 A.D. He carried so much gold

with him that he changed the economy of every country that he entered.

People of Africa did not

call it “Africa.” The

word “Ifriqiyya” was first

used by Tunisians.

If you go into the caves of

the Sahara, you will see

drawings of lions, tigers,

people, and forestry

made by people.

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He was described in Cairo as a pious man who strictly

observed his prayers and recitation of the Blessed

Qur’an. He was hosted by the Bahri Mamlukes of Egypt

who escorted his entourage through the Arabian

Peninsula to the Holy sites.

On his return, Mansa Musa brought back books,

scholars, architects, and missionaries. He built mosques

and empowered Muslims wherever he was able to.

Mansa Musa crossed the Sahara Desert with 72,000 people; he carried with him 15,000 camels laden with solid gold. When he reached Cairo in Egypt, it was during the time the Bahri Mameluks were leading the country. The Bahri Mameluks fell in love with Mansa Musa and gave him an entire cavalry. He travelled to Makkah and back to Cairo. When he was in Cairo, he was the talk of the town and everyone wanted to be near him. He used his money to buy books. At the time, Egypt was the center of knowledge of the Muslim world because Baghdad fell after the Mongols invaded them. He would give scholarships in gold to architects and scholars in a contract so that they could build palaces, masjids, and places of knowledge.

On arriving in Timbuktu, Mansa Musa found an empire of knowledge called

Timbuktu and paid special attention to develop it.

Timbuktu was founded by a Tuareg client woman who needed a mosquito-free base

to protect the goods of her nomadic clients. She dug a well some 12 kilometers

(eight miles) north of the Niger River food-plain along the southern edge of the

Sahara. This small, seemingly insignificant campsite, known as “Tin-Buktu” or the

place (or well) of Buktu became the cornerstone of a thriving, bustling city.

“Timbuktu” was named after a woman. Timbuktu means the “well of Buktu.” A marketplace was developed around the well and people were able to do business and store their goods. It provided a natural meeting place for the Tuareg, the Arabs, the Wangara, the

Songhai, the Soninke, and the Fulani, and a central marketplace for the gold of the

south and the salt and goods of the Mediterranean.

This area also became a meeting place for the great nations of Africa such as the Tuareg, the Arabs, Wangara, the Fulaani, etc. People of the desert would go down to Timbuktu

One of the most famous

rulers was Mansa Musa.

He was the richest man

to ever exist. His net

worth was 400 billion.

43

with salt which was very important back then to preserve food. It became known as a place where people wanted to journey to.

A symbiotic relationship formed between the merchants and the tent dwelling

Tuareg. Soon masājid and madrasahs appeared as traders and scholars began to

fock to the city.

Timbuktu later became a centre of learning and a producer and exporter of rare and

valuable Islamic books. Famous Muslim travelers like Ibn Battuta and Ḥasan al-

Wazan (Leo Africanus) visited Timbuktu and were amazed at the high level of

scholarship and the insatiable love for the study of the Arabic language and the

Blessed Qur’an.

Timbuktu became a center of Islamic learning. It was said that every man, woman, and child was literate in Timbuktu so much so that they could speak fluent Arabic and their own native language; every family had a Hafidh in their household. They were so serious that only people who can enter Timbuktu were ones with wudu, which means you had to be a Muslim.

At the height of the city’s golden age in the 16th century, Timbuktu boasted over

150 schools and a major university at the Sankore Mosque that enrolled over 25,000

students!

Timbuktu was at its height around the 16th century (1500s). They had one of the most prominent universities (University of Sankore) had 20,000 students enrolled in it. At this time, there wasn’t an Oxford or Princeton! These were Black, African Muslims scholars studying not just religion but science, medicine, math, etc.

Timbuktu also became a principal staging

point along the pilgrimage route to Makkah and

thus, became a central point for scholars and

travelers to the Middle East and a perfect base for the dissemination of Islamic

knowledge and ideas. Thousands of manuscripts were stored in private collections

and copied by local scribes for use in the many institutions of learning.

The Sankore masjid is still there today but the University is no longer functional; the scholars went out into the desert. To get knowledge in that area, you have to go into the desert to the scholars. This was mainly the aftermath of French colonialism. This is the

The scholars of Timbuktu

specialized in Maliki fiqh. Even

today in Timbuktu, they have

libraries with thousands of books

that are preserved.

*Shaykh Quick’s YouTube video on

“Timbuktu: Empire of Knowledge.”

44

reason why the French geographical society has given awards to people who could penetrate Timbuktu.

In 1324 A.D., when the emperor of Mali, Mansa Musa, made his famous pilgrimage

to Makkah, he was interviewed by the informant of the well-known geographer, Al-

‘Umari. Al-‘Umari wrote in his work Masālik al-Abrār f Mamālik al-Amsar, that

Mansa Musa’s predecessor desired to discover the limits of the neighbouring sea, so

he outfitted 2,000 ships, a thousand for his men and a thousand for his water and

supplies and ventured into the Atlantic. He never returned to Africa.

Examination of inscriptions found in Brazil, Peru and the United States, as well as

linguistic, cultural and archaeological finds offer documented evidence of the

presence of African Muslims in the early Americas. (See A.H. Quick, Deeper

Roots).

In Brazil, along the Amazon going up into Peru, they found Mandinkan inscriptions on rocks and stones; according to some reports they made it all the way up into the land of present day USA. Muslims interchanged culture with the people of the area and more or less, integrated into the society. Unfortunately, the conquering that the Spanish din the area caused the destruction of any records that the Mandinkan explorers kept.

Alexander Von Wuthenau, professor of Art

History at Mexico City College from 1939-

1965 put together a series of terracotta

figures, masks, pottery and other items that

clearly showed the presence of West

African Muslims before Columbus.

Alexander Von Wuthenau founded a museum in Mexico City and brought out various pieces of art that depicted the African people that migrated to the Americas, many of whom looked Muslim. For example, statues with a kufi and turban that looked like Muslim men.

It appears that Mandinka explorers, under the Mansa’s instructions explored Central

America and parts of the United States.

The early Mandinka explorers were undoubtedly carrying large amounts of gold

with them. Gold trade with the Americas is established through gold analysis,

In the late 70s/early 80s, Barry Fells

(Harvard) wrote 3 books claiming

many centuries of voyagers visiting

Americas before Columbus, but he

hid his books and work underground

at Cambridge. Till this day,

mainstream scholars reject his work.

45

linguistic findings and eyewitness reports. In a description given by Ferdinand

Columbus himself, the Native people of the Caribbean called gold, “guanin” (similar

to the Mandinka kanine or ghanin). The gold was found to be of 32 parts: 18 of

gold, 6 of silver and 18 of copper. This was a common West African alloy dating

back to the 13th century.

Ferdinand Columbus (not Christopher Columbus) found that the gold (guanin) the indigenous island people possessed consisted of 32 parts: 18 of gold, 6 of silver, and 8 of copper which was the exact same grouping of gold in West Africa. Meaning, the indigenous people’s ancestors were from West Africa! Along with guanin, it was also discovered that certain African groups or people of African descent in Central America had very, very similar or exact names and words for things as the West Africans. Clearly, these people came to the Americas before Columbus.

In The Journal of the Third Voyage, Columbus also noted that the Indians “brought

handkerchiefs of cotton, very symmetrically woven and worked in colors like those

brought from Guinea”.

There were similarities in their culture relating to the African culture. Ferdinand Columbus recorded the presence of women in northern Honduras piercing their ears until an egg could go through them which is a reminiscent of West African (Masaa’i) women. In Panama, the Mandinka had such an impact, that they were classified as part of the

indigenous people of the area (Mandingas and Tule). In 1513 A.D., Balboa found

Black people in Panama that he described as entirely like the Blacks of Guinea.

The Balboa, who “discovered” Panama, found traces of Blacks. The Indigenous people warned them not to go to the other side of Panama, “Don't go there. There are dark men with long beards that are fierce” and the Balboa took their advice.

In Honduras and Nicaragua the African Muslims were described as Jaras and

Guabas (West African names). One tribe called themselves “Almamys” (from

imām).

In Honduras, some Africans called themselves “Almamys.” They had similar tribal and family names like Jaras, Guabas, and Kaba (African names) all over Central America.

46

Actually, Spanish conquistadors found African people all over the Caribbean region.

Some were identified as “Black Caribs” or “Garifuna”, a distinct indigenous group.

Some European scholars insisted that these Black Caribs were the result of Black

slaves mixing with the local native population but this argument could not explain

their presence before the slavery period.

The Garifuna people in Central America have maintained a number of Islamic

practices like avoiding the eating of pork and retaining their own African based

language.

The Garifuna people were a distinct group of African people in the Caribbean region who maintained monotheism. There's a theory that these people are directly connected to the 2,000 on the ship with Mansa Musa.

Many more clear proofs would probably have been found

among the Native populations had it not been for the Spanish “scorched earth”

policy of destroying all writings and remnants of Native culture.

After surveying the growing number of archaeological, linguistic and historical proofs

for the presence of Muslims in the Americas before Columbus, the researcher

becomes aware of a massive cover-up.

Vasco da Gama is reported to have consulted Aḥmad ibn Majid on the West coast

of Africa. Ibn Majid is regarded as the author of a handbook on navigation of the

Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the Arabian Gulf, the South China Sea and the waters

around the West Indies.

Columbus was, therefore, not the discoverer of America but merely a pretender who

mimicked the voyages of earlier explorers and began a dark period of colonialism

and genocide that is still plaguing the world.

Columbus was well-aware of the presence of Muslims as written in his memoirs. These stories are part of our deeper roots. This is not to attack Columbus; he was just late. But his name has been used to dominate us and our minds.

Suggested Reading: Africa and the Discovery of America by Leo Weinhart

Many Garifuna

people are returning

to Islam, their roots.

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48

The Second Wave

Before the Muslims entered North Africa, the Byzantine Empire was spreading corruption and oppression in the land. North Africa was a huge region with highly fertile land. The Roman Empire’s economy was flourishing due to their planted crops such as olive trees in North Africa’s fertile land. The Muslims fought the Romans of the Byzantine Empire as they were oppressive and spread corruption. However, Islam itself was not spread by the sword. Warfare does not allow for a religion to spread because force is not effective and the converts will eventually bounce back to their old ways and the seeds of religion spread through upward mobility. Islam was spread through dawah. Across from North Africa was Al-Andalus in Spain, but the Muslims had no desire to travel there as they had enough fertile land in North Africa and weren’t in need of anything. However, they soon received a call for help from the monotheistic people (the Jews) who were in Spain before Christianity. The Roman Trinitarian Church wanted to control the region and oppress them.

Tariq ibn Ziyaad led the conquest of Spain. After defeating the oppressors, the Muslims found almost no resistance on part of the Jews and Christians and were accepted as tolerant people. The Jews recognized the good leadership of Muslims and thereafter, the Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived together in peace. The Christians and the Jews recognized that the Muslims were a lenient people; they didn’t tax them nor burden them in any way. The city of Cordoba in Al-Andalus (capital of Muslims of Al-Andalus) became the largest city at that time.

The arrival of Muslims in 711 A.D. marked not only a

fresh start for Spain, but for the whole of Europe.

Through Islamic Spain, Muslims introduced concepts of tolerance, civil society, arts,

sciences, mathematics and philosophy that Europe had never seen before. It was the

start of a new Renaissance in civilization that we are still benefiting from today.

Learning the reality of

history equips one to

think outside the box i.e.

be “outside the matrix.”

49

AbdurRahman Ad-Dakhil was one of the greatest leaders of the Muslim world when Al- Andalus was the largest Muslim nation. He made sure that the children were educated and that the crops such as cotton, dates, and olive oil trees were actively growing and healthy. AbdurRahman created a system for running water and brought scientists and innovators to help improve the society. Around the year 1000 AD, Cordoba in Al-Andalus was very populous and it was at its peak of civilization. It took Paris and London 700 years to reach this level.

After a few hundred years, an over-abundance of wealth, squabbling over power,

tribalism and abandonment of the Sunnah (Prophetic Methodology) lead to internal

corruption and an imminent attack by the forces of the Trinitarian north.

Ibn Khaldun stated that if those who were born and raised within the palace (raised with a silver spoon in their mouths) do not remember the struggles of their parents/ancestors, they will decline. Ka’b ibn Iyad reported: I heard the Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) say,

وعن كعب بن عياض، رضي هللا عنه، وقال سمعت رسول هللا، صلى هللا عليه

.المالإن لكل أمة فتنة، وفتنة أمتى :وسلم، يقول

“Verily, every nation has a trial and the trial of my nation is wealth.” [At-Tirmidhi] The fall of the Islamic civilization was caused by

• An overabundance of wealth • Squabbling over power • Tribalism • Abandonment of the Sunnah

All of this led to internal corruption and an imminent attack by the forces of the Trinitarian from North Spain. The Muslims began to leave their original message of Islam, focus on materialism, forget the Sunnah, and allow tribalism to take over. One of the biggest weaknesses of the Muslims was that they turned against each other. Some even sided with the Trinitarians (Catholics) against other Muslims which led to the sense of authority to disappear. Al-Muraabitoon was a movement from North Africa to revive Islam, but it began to decline within 100 years and it didn’t last. The lands were broken up into several territories; emirates. Eventually, the Muslims were weakened and were overtaken by the Trinitarians (Catholics).

50

During the Catholic conquest of Al-Andalus, the Spanish Inquisition, an organized

genocide, began in 1478 A.D.

The Spanish Inquisition was an organized genocide that gradually took place. How were they able to systematically erase a group of people? They allowed the Muslims to practice Islam but isolated them to exploit them and learn their skills. Once they learned their skills and no longer needed the Muslims, the Inquisition began. They were put in front of a judge and had to state that they were Catholic. If they didn’t they were burned at stake. How can a country that was ruled by Muslims for hundreds of years with Muslims as majority of the population decline to the point where the population of Muslims becomes zero?

In the conquered areas, any sign of Islam could

lead to death at a burning stake. A good example

was the famous case of Elvira the Christian, who

did not eat pork and changed her linens on

Saturday, burned at the stake.

Elvira was a Christian woman who used to wash her clothing on Saturdays. The Catholics didn’t want even a single aspect of Islam such as washing/cleanliness present in Al-Andalus to the point that they put Elvira on trial and eventually killed her by burning her. If you were a Christian and took a bath Thursday night (which was Friday for the Muslims as after Salatul Maghrib, the next day begins), you were put on trial.

Some scholars estimate that 2 million Jews and 3 million Muslims were killed or

exiled.

Muslims were labelled Moors, from Maurus or dark-skinned in Latin. Those who

submitted and became slaves and servants were known as Mudejares (servile,

domesticated or imposter). The Muslims who were baptized were known as

Moriscos (Christian Moors) and the Jews called Morenos.

Moors refers to Muslims. Moors meant “dark-skinned”; this was similar to “negroes.” This was derogatory and confined to the color of skin. It was a means to wipe out people’s identities. They were no longer people, but rather a color. Mudejares refers to ‘domesticated slaves’ or ‘imposters.’ They were Muslims who had submitted and were meant to do work around the house, cook food for, etc.

Hindu fanatics study Al-

Andalus & how the khilaafah

was destroyed as it was the only

place where Muslims and

Islam was systematically wiped

out.

51

Moriscos refers to the Muslims who were baptized by force. Externally, they were Catholic, but internally, they secretly hid their Islam. Morenos refers to the Jews who were baptized. The last name of the President of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, indicates that his ancestors were secret Jews who had

eventually escaped to South America.

Special badges, separate facilities and special clothes were assigned to these people.

Moriscos remained tailors, silversmiths and artisans.

By 1412 A.D., over 100,000 books were burnt in Spain and over a million were

destroyed by the time of the final conquest.

The Catholics (conquistadors) would gather all the writings in the middle of the towns and burn them. This was a big issue because when they burned literature, they burned memories the people had. Once they burned their memories, they could enslave them. A scorched-earth policy was effective where if any of the Muslims fled to villages or were given refuge by the village, resulted in burning the village down. Now, it is called “counter-insurgency,” which is modern day drones.

The Islamic response to this oppression was based on jihād [resistance] and hijrah

[migration]. Those who could not leave were encouraged to resist silently.

Initial response of the Muslims was Jihad (resistance). If they were unable to resist, then Hijrah (migration) was the second option. Those who migrated, went to the south of Spain to the Kingdom of Granada. When they finally lost Granada which was the last province ruled under the Muslims, they were exiled into the Mediterranean (Turkey, Algeria, etc.). The last option was silent (jihad) resistance (Jihad doesn’t necessarily mean physical/military) for those who remained in Spain. Why didn’t any Muslims across the world help? The Moroccans were not strong enough at the time to defeat the Spanish. The Ottoman Empire did not have the military strength to send a huge force across the Mediterranean, but they did send boats equipped with pirates (Mujahideen) to fight the Spanish on the ocean. In 1492, the last Ameer of Granada, Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muḥammad al-thānī ‘ashar, surrendered the kingdom to the Catholics who were fighting them by signing a treaty (of peace), which was broken by the Catholics. After the final surrender, the colonization of Americas began.

52

A fatwa from the Mufti of Wahran, Aḥmad Bu Jumu‘ah Al-Maghrawi, in 1504 A.D.

allowed Islamic compulsory acts to be done indirectly like tayammum done with a

tap on the wall, ṣalāh made with the eyes or zakāh given as a gift.

A mufti gave a fatwa that allowed to outwardly renounce your religion in the face of torture just to keep Islam in your heart. Therefore, if one wanted to make Salaah, they would tap the wall while walking down the street and it counted as tayammum. One could could pray with just the eyes. For ghusl (bath that is mandated for Muslims), one

would simply jump in the lake and go swimming with the intention of ghusl. For funerals, they would go to church during the day and pray the janazah in the darkness of the night. If Muslims wanted to get married, they had to go to a church in daylight and in the darkness of the night, they would get their nikkah done. As for zakat, the Muslims could simply give someone a gift with the intention of zakat. Moriscos midwives were not allowed to give birth to Muslims so there was no shahadah/adhan.

Refugees from Al-Andalus spread all over the Muslim world, especially North

Africa. Many refugees became Babary pirates, slaves or artisans on the boats sent to

the New World.

Some undercover Muslims even went with Christopher Columbus to escape the brutality in Spain. Babary pirates were Turkish Muslim pirates who fought the Spanish on the oceans. In Pirates of the Carribean, Captain Jack Sparrow was actually a British man who accepted Islam. If Moriscos were found guilty of lesser acts of heresy, they were sent out on the boats as galley slaves.

The colonization of the Americas by the Spanish was an

extension of the Reconquista (so-called reconquest) of the

Iberian Peninsula. The early explorers were, in many

cases, Spanish soldiers who had fought in Spain and Africa

and sailed the seas to destroy the power of Islam.

The understanding of what happened to Al-Andalus (Iberian Peninsula) is crucial to understanding the Muslim/African presence in American Slavery and the Atlantic slave trade. What is the role of the Muslims in conquering the West? They were enslaved workers; not murderers. The killers were the Catholics (conquistadors). Native people to the land were not prepared for or expected such hostility from people who came to conquer them. This is the reason why the Natives called them devils/demons. Shaykh Abdullah Hakim Quick mentioned that he heard a Rabbi state, “Columbus was Jewish and I can

Most Christians in

the Americas with

Portuguese names

have Jewish roots.

53

prove it.” at a conference in Jamaica. His reasoning was that Columbus had to escape Spain from the Inquisition.

It’s also proven that Columbus had Muslims with him on his journey because they knew Arabic. Since he had been planning to go to China/India where Arabic was lingua franca (common language), he needed to be able to communicate.

When someone asks you, “when did you people get here?” You should say, “We were here BEFORE Columbus.” Or you can say,

“We were here with Columbus (as slaves).”

They recognized the influence of Islam wherever they

journeyed and did everything to convert the people to

Catholicism. When Hernan Cortes (the conqueror of

Mexico) arrived in the Yucatan, he named the area “El

Cairo”.

When the Spanish hit the seas with the Muslim’s technology (their maps), they were paranoid of Muslims in Spain and Portugal; any Morisco or Moreno that was found guilty of crimes (such as doing or performing circumcisions on males), they would be made into galley slaves (rowing and other hard work on boats).

During the rule of Ferdinand, the Catholic, in spite of excesses against Islam in

Spain, some of the Moriscos, who travelled to the Americas as explorers, soldiers

and laborers, began practicing their true faith and succeeded in propagating Islam

among the Indians.

Rodrigo de Triana was an enslaved Muslim navigator who first saw land but Columbus probably told him “keep quiet, sit down, I saw the land.” On July 31, 1502 A.D., a Spanish ship in the Caribbean reported a strange, 40 ft.

long Moorish ship with 40 men and women dressed in Moorish cloth. The women

covered their faces (niqaab)!

In 1560, the Inquisition of Peru led to the execution Lope de La Pena and his cohort, Luis Solano, for practicing and spreading Islam (up in the Andes). In 1566 A.D., the Spanish established St. Elena, South Carolina. It was captured by

the English in 1567 C.E. and its inhabitants, many of who were Moriscos fled into

the mountains of North Carolina (Appalachians).

The oldest

synagogue in the

Western world

is in Jamaica.

Columbus mentioned

“mesquite” (mosque)

in Americas.

54

Shaykh Abdullah Hakim Quick showed a map of early America and mentioned, “If you’re talking about building a wall, where are you building a wall around? This is the people’s territory!” Walls are tools of oppression that are artificial. Muslim/British Cooperation in the 16th century: At the time of Roanoke’s founding (1585), attitudes of the English toward the Muslims of the Ottoman Empire, Morocco, and North Africa contrasted sharply with those of the Spanish. Muslims had an alliance with the British. Abdul Wahid ibn Mas’ud ibn Muhammad ibn Anun was the secretary to the Moroccan ruler, Malay Ahmad al Mansur, and was sent as Muslim Ambassador to the British (to the court of Queen Elizabeth) where he was highly favored. The British were infatuated with the Muslim culture. Many aspects of British culture were adopted from the Muslim culture such coffee which was known to be a Muslim drink from Ethiopia and Yemen and tea from India.

In 1586 A.D., Sir Francis Drake with 30 ships raided the Portuguese in Brazil and

freed 300 Moorish galley slaves. He left them on Roanoke Island in America.

In Sir Francis Drake’s records was written the words “Turks”, “Greeks”, “Moors”, and “Negroes”. Estevanico of Azamor was a Muslim from Morocco who had explored various lands. He first landed in Florida in 1527 and made his way to Mexico and Arizona. He was amongst the first non-native people coming in from the side of Cuba/Florida to explore the area. In New Mexico, there’s even a statue of him. By 1654 A.D., reports of bearded Portuguese silversmiths were appearing.

They were said to “drop to their knees many times daily to pray”.

During the 16th Century, Cardinal Jimenez de Cisneros (a missionary) complained that Islam was being openly practiced in the Americas, especially by the Moriscos. In 1784 A.D., Tennessee Governor John Sevier met with these people. In the early

1700’s, Jonathan Swift, an Englishman, married a “Makkah Indian”.

A people called Melungeons (In Turkish, “people whose life has been cursed”) were

identified in the Appalachian region of the USA.

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A mixed group of people called themselves Melungeons because they thought they were in bad shape.

In 1990 A.D., Dr. James Guthrie found that the

blood samples of these people were the same as the

population of North Africa, Turkey, Iraq and the

Mediterranean region. They also suffered similar

illnesses like sarcoidosis.

Sarcoidosis is an inflammatory disease that can affect multiple areas of the body, including the lungs, eyes, skin and, in some cases, the heart.

The Melungeons are found today all over the United States, especially the east coast.

They were usually classified as a separate category of people, not Black, White or

Indian.

Based on the study of Brent Kennedy, The Melungeons, any person of any race

with the following names living in the southeast of America could be in this group:

Adams, Adkins, Bell, Bennet, Berry, Bowling, Chavis, Coleman, Collins, Gibson,

Goins, Hall, Jackson, Lopes, Moore, Mullins, Nash, Robinson, Sexton and

Williams.

Andrew Jackson was a Melungeon. Famous Melungeons include Nancy Hanks, wife of President Abraham Lincoln and

Elvis Presley!

Suggested Reading: Turks, Moors, and Moriscos in Early America by Dr. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah

Judge Lewis Shepherd

defended a Melungeon girl

in a famous Tennessee

case and said that she’s a

Portuguese Moor.

56

57

The Third Wave

In the Ancient World, slavery was a worldwide institution. It was not a employer & worker relationship but rather master & slave. The word slave comes from “slav” as the Slavic and Germanic people who were slaves of the Romans. Slavery was not based on color; it was based on control. Slaves made up of more than half the population of Rome. However, because of their lowly position, they were represented in Roman Art only as supernumeraries. The sources of slaves were through kidnapping, debts, sale of children (too poor to support), punishment for crime, lineage, war, etc. Sometimes, caravans were raided and people within were taken as slaves. Suhayb ar Rumi was actually an Iraqi, although he looked Roman/European with his blonde hair and blue eyes. Yet, he was still a slave. Salman al Farsi, a Persian, was a slave of a Jewish man in Yathrib. Zayd ibn Harithah was an Arab and a slave. These examples show that slavery was not based on color but rather power. Slavery in Islam: (Recommendation to listen to Shaykh Omar Suleiman’s lecture on Islam and Slavery) What exactly are right hand possessions? “Slavery” from war (prisoners of war) is more bonded servitude rather than being a slave. That is what it refers to right hand possession. Islam was phasing slavery out as the prophet Muhammad (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam), for all intents and purposes, continuously told people to free their slaves. The Quran has many commandments to free slaves. Surah Tawbah, Ayah 60 [9:60]

قاب دقات للفقراء والمساكين والعاملين عليها والمؤلفة قلوبهم وفي الر نما الص

وابن السبيل فريضة من عليم حكيم. والغارمين وفي سبيل للا وللا للا

“Zakah expenditures are only for the poor and for the needy and for those employed to collect [zakah] and for bringing hearts together [for Islam] and for freeing captives [or slaves] and for those in debt and for the cause of Allah and for the [stranded] traveler - an obligation [imposed] by Allah. And Allah is Knowing and Wise.” The only kind of slavery left was prisoners of war-bonded servitude with a legal Islamic contract that allowed the servant could leave including the prisoners being fed the same as the “master,” and clothed in the same quality. Islam does not permit what we know as “slavery.”

58

Later on, in Islamic History, those who deviated from the Sunnah began to follow the ways of other nations. They were institutes of bad forms of slavery. These were Muslims who later on enslaved people in gruesome ways and carried out gruesome acts. There's an ijmaa’ amongst the Ulamaa that slavery is haram. Mameluke (also known as Mamluk) is an Arabic term that means slave. However, the Mamelukes were the driving force that helped the Golden Age of Islamic Literature.

According to some estimates, as many as 15-30% of

the African slaves and political prisoners taken to the

Western Hemisphere by Europeans were Muslims.

In the early (American) colonies, the slaves were initially taken from the Native

(Indian) population but they refused to submit to slavery in their own lands. Then

poor white settlers were used as slaves but that was also unsuccessful. Finally, the

Europeans colonists looked to Africa, since the climate was similar to the Caribbean,

Brazil and the American South.

Millions of African people of almost all West African tribes, languages and religions

found themselves in bondage in the Americas. Ashanti, Wolof, Coromanti, Ibo,

Yoruba, Mandinka, Fulani, Hausa and Susu all became victims of this vicious

practice.

The Muslims at the time in West Africa such as the Ashanti and the Yoruba knew how to grow crops and had huge empires. If captured, they’d have the knowledge of how to tend to crops and could handle the heat which is one of the reasons the Europeans enslaved them. The great percentage of slaves being sold was done by non-Muslims, NOT Muslims. There is a misconception that Muslims sold African slaves. Some say, “You (African) Muslims sold Africans into slavery.” If you look at the ports of call, they were non-Muslim ports. By the 16th century, slaves were referred to by the color of their skin and anyone who was African could or would be enslaved. In other words, anyone who was not a light-skinned European would become a slave. Manumission (emancipation of slaves) was rare and upward mobility in society was impossible for them.

Slavery is still present

today in other forms such

as human trafficking,

wage slavery, etc.

59

Countless numbers of people died in the Middle

Passage between the African and American coasts.

Many people resisted and slave revolts and suicide

was common on the slave ships.

Muslims resisted European slavery from its inception

on the African continent. Shaykh Nasir al-Din of Mauritania, in 1673 stated: “God

does not allow rulers to raid, kill, or enslave their people. He has to, on the contrary,

guard them from their enemies. The people are not made for the rulers but the

rulers are made for the people.”

Shaykh Nasir ad Din and his people resisted the French and the slavery of the coast. Between 15-30% of the African slaves and political prisoners that were taken to the Western Hemisphere by the Europeans were Muslims. European slavery was based on kidnapping and through purchasing.

The Almamy (imām) of the Futa Toro threatened the

French Governor in Saint- Louis in a letter dated March

1789: “We are warning you that all those who will come

to our land to trade (in slaves) will be killed or

massacred if you do not send our children back. Would

not somebody who was very hungry abstain from eating

if he had to eat something cooked with his blood? We

absolutely do not want you to buy Muslims under any

circumstances. I repeat that if your intention is to always buy

Muslims you should stay home and not come to our country anymore. Because all

those who will come can be assured that they will lose their life.”

The first slaves were brought to the Portuguese and Spanish colonies around 1518.

Later, the English, French and Dutch joined the trade.

The Senegambians (ladinos and bozales) were the first Africans to be sold to the

“New World”. In 1522, the Wolof of Hispaniola led the first African slave revolt in

the history of the Americas. They also rebelled in Puerto Rico and Panama. One of

the leading forces in the resistance to slavery was the

Muslim population who by the very nature of their faith were independent and

unwilling to submit to oppression.

Many enlightened

Islamic leaders resisted

the European slave trade.

Many of the enslaved

descendants are still

revisiting their roots,

making Islam the fastest

growing religion in the

Western Hemisphere.

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From the beginning, there was resistance. Approximately ⅓ of slaves were Muslim. There were numerous revolts in the Western Hemisphere by the Muslims who were brought as slaves. At one point even a Portuguese leader wrote back to Prince Philip asking him to not send anymore Muslim slaves because they kept revolting and (on a small scale) succeeding. They even gave some of the slaves boats and told them to go back home.

A number of eye witness reports, written

documents, autobiographies and records have

come to the surface in recent years. This new body

of evidence has enabled Historians to reconstruct

the lives of a number of Muslim slaves. Some of

them were scholars who wrote the Qur’an and

other important Islamic texts from memory.

A lot of the slaves were literate in Arabic. In Timbuktu, the entire city was literate. Muslims were identified by the slave records as Mandingos, Mahometans and

infidels and were generally more feared by their masters.

In 1833, Muslims were identified as Mahomatens by Gertrude Carmichael on the

islands of Trinidad and St. Vincent. Robert Madden, a British magistrate discovered

a society of Mandingo slaves who spoke Arabic and wrote letters to the Jamaican

countryside. A wathīqah or document calling for rebellion sparked a great slave

revolt in 1821-22.

In 19th century Trinidad, a Mandingo free society was formed which freed Muslim

slaves and established its own land in Trinidad. A sizeable presence of Muslims was

noticed by a Swedish traveller in Cuba.

The great rebellion of the Bush Blacks in Surinam was led by Arabi and Zamzam. A

large population of Muslims was identified on the island of Exuma in the Bahamas.

It was a common practice to be in Qur’anic studies by writing on tablets. It would also be written in their local languages in Arabic scripts (‘Ajamic script). Languages written in ‘Ajami script were Swahili, Turkish (now banned by Ataturk), and Urdu. There were documents of Morisco coming out in Spain and Spanish was written in Arabic ‘Ajamic script.

There’s a mosque in

Labos, Brazil that was built

by Nigerian Muslims who

were captured and revolved

against the Portuguese.

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Slaves from West Africa brought to the island of Exuma (an island in the West Indies today) identified themselves as “followers of Mahomet” or Muhammad (S). Crusaders used to this to call “Muhammad.” A lot of them were baptized (Catholicism).

Ayyūb ibn Sulayman (Job Ben Solomon) was born in

1700 in Bundu in eastern Senegal, enslaved and taken to

Maryland. He was a scholar who prayed 5 times per day and wrote the whole

Qur’an from memory and eventually returned to West Africa.

Ayyub Ibn Sulayman was a highly literate person and a scholar. He was traveling to visit another area when he was captured by slave raiders and put in chains to be taken to the coast onto a boat. When he was captured, he was stripped of his clothings and his head was shaved bald. He wrote a book called the Memoirs of Job Ben Solomon. He told the slave traders that if they let him go, his father would give them 10 times the price they would sell him for. They didn’t listen. When he got to Maryland, they realized he was literate and allowed him to do scribe work. According to the treaty between Morocco and the US, he was later set free.

‘AbdulRaḥman ibn Ibrahīm was born in Timbuktu in 1762, enslaved in Mississippi,

and returned home in 1829. AbdurRahman Ibn Ibrahim was a leader and

Ameer/prince. He was on his way from a major battle when he got captured. He was

enslaved by the Europeans and was taken to Mississippi.

There is a documentary about him called Prince Among Slaves. A missionary asked him to write the Lord’s Prayer in Arabic; AbdurRahman trolled him and wrote Surah Fatihah. Missionary signed the paper saying “I made him write the Lord’s Prayer” but he didn’t know what AbdurRahman had written.

Yarrow Maḥmoud was born in the 1700’s and died at the age of 128 after 70 years

in slavery. ‘Umar ibn Sayyid wrote his own story in Arabic and it still exists.

The autobiography is at the Islamic Museum in Jackson, Mississippi. There's a painting of him in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Moḥammed Kaba, from Bouka, from the Malinke of Guinea, was studying to be a

judge, was captured at 20 and deported to Jamaica.

Abu Bakr Sadiqa, a cleric from Timbuktu, was captured and taken to Jamaica in

1834. He wrote extensively in Arabic about his life and times.

Some Muslims in the

prison system currently

use this as a means to

communicate!

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He was given the duty to change Jamaica and the West Indies slavery to indentured slavery. He spent time in Turkey and Syria.

Francois Makandal (1753-1757) born in Guinea, a Marabout, led a slave revolt just

before the great revolution in Haiti.

In West Africa, a Marabout (plural Murabitoon) is a traveling scholar. Makandal was a marabout. He, Bookman, and another Muslim started the slave revolt in Haiti. Most Jamaicans were Muslims. It was the first time that anyone had revolted against the colonial powers and defeated them.

Saliḥ Bilali was captured at 14 riding from

Jenne to Kianah. He spent over 60 years in

slavery on St. Simon’s island, Georgia.

Bilali had started to become a very famous name. Anyone with the name Bailey comes from the Bilali family. Fredrick Douglas’ mother was a “Bailey,” which means his ancestors were more than likely Muslim.

Bilali Muḥammad, a former cleric, was enslaved on Sapelo Island, Georgia in the

early 1800’s.

Old Lizzy Gray, a Muslim woman who died in South Carolina, was reported to have

said after her so-called conversion to Christianity, “Christ built the first church in

Makkah and his grave was their.”

Lizzy was speaking in symbolically in her statement “Christ built the first church in Mecca and his grave is there.” She was referring to the prophet Muhammed (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) and it proved that she was Muslim. Her words were a form of resistance.

Fatima or Phoebe was the wife of Bilali Muḥammad and

well known in the Sapelo islands.

It was a great sign of resistance.

The Haitian people are still

being punished for their

revolutionary spirit. Many

people in Haiti now are

embracing Islam, their roots.

There are still a lot of

Muslims in the

Sapelo Islands and

their descendants still

reside there.

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A series of rebellions took place in Brazil around 1835. The resistance was so

intense that some of the slaves were allowed to return to West Africa.

Despite the large presence of Muslims in the Americas, the slave masters succeeded

in converting the next generations to Christianity by prohibiting Islamic practices and

forcing name change. Adultery, pork and alcohol became essential parts of slave life.

Jamaicans and Haitians were the most resistant people. In Jamaica, there were people called Maroons. Spanish called them se marones (wild horses), which meant “we can’t control you”. They were successful in defeating the Spanish. The British were crafty and made a treaty with the Maroon people saying they’d give them freedom but said if any runaway slaves were to come to them, the Maroons would have to return them to the British (similar to the treaty of Hudaybiyyah).

African Muslims suffered greatly under the brutal

system of European slavery. They were forced to

forget their native languages and Arabic was, for the

most part, outlawed.

It was forbidden to pray, fast or practice any aspect

of Islamic lifestyle. Pork was forced upon the slaves

as the main staple meat. Families were broken up

and children were scattered. Islam remained only

as a dormant seed in the minds of African people in

the Americas.

How were last names decided? They came from the slave masters. There's a misconception that Arabs smuggled just as much slaves from East Africa as the Europeans did from West Africa. However, there's clear proof that there were slaves only in the Caribbeans, Brazil, Central America, and the US. There's absolutely no proof of them in the Arab lands or Arabs even owning African slaves.

African Muslims left a legacy of tawḥīd, ṭahārah (purity)

and calling to righteousness. This legacy still lives on today

in the numerous Islamic movements springing up all over

the hemisphere.

Even now, the Maroon

nation is a free nation within

Jamaica and have scholars

of Islam. Suriname

Maroons, up till today, have

a state within a state and

many are returning to Islam.

Some women of the

Drayton plantation

were known to wear

prayer beads and

covered their heads.

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The Fourth Wave

During this period, there was resistance amongst the slaves in the colonies, on the boats, on the African coast, and in the Americas. In addition, resistance was not only from the slaves but from the Europeans as well. They were called abolitionists.

Slavery was abolished in the British colonies on March 5, 1807, and gradually

throughout the Americas based on the particular country and the strength of the

resistance movements.

Famous African Abolitionists were Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas. Famous European Abolitionists were William Wilberforce and John Brown. John Brown and his people did an open rebellion. In which he was eventually hanged by government. Slavery existed in Canada but it was not as vicious as it was in the US.

In 1839, Indian indentured labor was made legal in the British Colonies.

Slavery was becoming a dirty word and so they decided to call it indentured employment/servitude. Indentured Labor was another way of having slaves bounded by a contract to do cheap labor. Hundred thousands of Indian indentured slaves were brought to Natal, St. Kitts, Surinam, Fiji, East Africa, British Guiana etc.

The British office introduced a contract to travel to the colonies and work for five

years.

In this contract, a 5-year contract stating that the servant would work in the colonies with the option to leave was signed. Majority of indentured servants were coming from India. In 1839, Indian indentured labor was made legal in the British colonies.

Workers were to be provided free housing (usually barracks) and free medical

attention. The Spanish, desperately short of labor in Cuba, brought in Chinese

contract workers, and the Dutch introduced workers from Indonesia, principally

Java.

Ports of Call: Nine-tenths of the indentured Indian immigrants were from the Ganges Basin and embarked at Calcutta. The South Indian remainder were from Madras. One in six were Muslims and the rest were Hindus. The ship wasn’t a slave ship because no one was chained. However, due to the poor conditions, some deaths did occur.

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Between 1838 and 1924, nearly half a million Indians entered the Caribbean region.

The Whitby landed in Berbice, Guyana on May 5, 1838, from Calcutta, India after

leaving on Jan 13th. From India, the voyage was 10-18 weeks with difficult

conditions. Many died in the passage.

The voyage was presented as a luxury trip BUT the difficulties began on those ships. Although the Indians had basic control over their own lives unlike the African slaves, many were treated harshly and still died.

Under this system, it was a crime to miss work or misbehave. Five tasks were

required per week, pass books were issued, housing conditions were miserable, and

labor was long and hard. Women and children were also forced to work under

difficult conditions.

There were harsh conditions under indentured labor. The indentured servants were required to perform 5 tasks a week regardless of their health conditions. Pass books were issued to allow indentured servants to travel as long as they carried their pass books with them. The pass would contain information regarding who they were and where they were coming from. Housing conditions were miserable. The labor was long and hard with hot weather and wild rains. Children and females were also forced to work. The difference between this and slavery is that they were allowed to have some semblance of family in the sense that they could have a small plot of land for growing their own crops.

By 1851, the British would pay 5 acres and 5 pounds to anyone who forfeited the

right to return (back home) after 10 years of labor.

The majority of the people thought it would be better for them to stay, so by taking this deal they forfeited their right to go back. This gave them a sense of dignity because they could at least maintain their traditional practices (religion, language, food, etc).

Muslim laborers were subject to insult and ridicule. In Trinidad, they were called

“Mandingos” and in Guyana “Fula”, connecting them with African Muslims.

There was Islamophobia in the colonies. When the Muslims tried to practice Islam in Guyana, they were called “fula men” connecting them to African Muslims; not knowing that in Africa, being of the Fula people was honorable.

There was a group of organized Muslims led by Muhammed Sice who freed themselves and created their own community. The British and other colonial powers were afraid of

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the Muslims as they did not want them practicing Islam for fear of unified upheaval/revolt over a common practice of religion. Mandingos was a term used to refer to a rebellious African slave. In Trinidad, during times of slavery there was a society of Mandingos who had freed themselves and served in the military. They organized land outside Spain and had madrassa and Shura. Whenever slave ships came, the Mandingos would see if there were Muslims on the ship and buy them or anyone who willingly wanted to live under the practice of Islam. When Port of Spain had a drought/famine, Muslims were feeding the capital. Overall, the Muslims were flourishing and had a very stable society. In Georgia, Nation of Islam emerged; Elijah Muhammad met Wallace Fard Muhammad, co-founder of Nation of Islam, who began teaching him contracting and inaccurate info and was also under the watch of the FBI. When Fard vanished, Elijah Muhammad claimed that Fard was god and that he (Elijah) was the last messenger. Now to Muslims, this is unbelievable, but in America, it wasn’t strange for a man to be god. Malcolm X joined the Nation of Islam. However, he was sincere and found many mistakes within Elijah Muhammad. He eventually embraced true Islam and became a true Sunni Muslim. He founded the organization, Muslim Mosque Inc. When Malcolm broke from the Nation, many people saw that the Nation was wrong and that there was an alternative. Malcolm X was given 7 scholarships by Al Azhar University. When Elijah died, Warath al Din (his son) took over and changed the Nation to true Islam. Louis Farrakhan maintains the old Nation, although at one point he was a true Muslim. Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965.

Javanese (Indonesian) laborers were brought to Surinam in large numbers. Surinam

has the largest Muslim population in the Western Hemisphere.

In the Dutch section of Guyana known as Surinam, the Dutch brought in not only Indian indentured laborers, but Indonesians (from Java) as well. According to population stats, Surinam has the largest percentage of Muslims per region in the Western Hemisphere as of right now. Majority of them are Shafi’i in fiqh unlike the majority of the Indians who were Hanafi. Their masaajid have madrasa attached to it to pass on Islam to the next generation. There are many Surinames in Amsterdam and Indonesia. It is due to the suffering of the African Muslims that these communities were possible.

African communities

suffered from a great loss

of identity except for

those in rebellious

communities like Jamaica.

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69

The Last Wave

During the 19th century, large numbers of Christian and Muslim immigrants arrived

to the United States from Syria and Lebanon. Many families settled in the Midwest,

making a living as farmers, peddlers or shopkeepers.

In 19th century when U.S. purchased, fought, and added Louisiana to their country, they drove the natives into reservations. Due to the apartheid system they practiced, they established a color line and only let in light-skinned people such as from Ireland and the Ottoman lands (light skinned Muslims from Albania, Bosnians, along with Syrians and Lebanese if they passed the ‘color line’).

As the United States suffered through World War

I and the Great Depression, the Muslim families of

Cedar Rapids pulled together to establish a location

for organized worship, and social/cultural events to

help promote and preserve their heritage. The

mosque was completed in 1934.

In 1871, John and Martha Simon (registered as Mahometans) came from the U.S. to

Ontario, Canada. There were a total of 17 Muslims living in Canada at that time. In

1854, Canada recorded the first Muslim birth: James Love (probably Habib) in

Ontario.

In the 19th and early 20th century, settlers from Ottoman Empire arrived in

Ontario, Alberta, and other Provinces as railroad workers, farmers, and small

business people. On December 12, 1938, Ar-Rashid Mosque opened in Edmonton,

Alberta. Abdullah Yusuf Ali of the UK was the Master of Ceremonies of the

program.

Most of the Arab immigrants who came to North America were either Greek

Orthodox or Roman Catholic Christians while a smaller

percentage were Muslims. Within a few decades, many of them

continued their migration to the South.

Large majority was Christian but there were some Muslims amongst them.

Arabs in Latin America:

The reason why the mother

mosque of the USA is in the

Midwest is because Muslims

were moving to Midwest.

The oldest

masjid is in

Canada.

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As a result of this quiet migration, 5% of Latin America today is Arab in

origin. This corresponds to roughly 25-30 million people. The population

can vary from a low of 2% in Uruguay to an astounding 9% in Argentina.

One of the richest people in the world is a Lebanese-Mexican, Carlos

Slim. A president of Argentina, Carlos Menem, was of Syrian origin. Three

presidents of Ecuador were of Lebanese origin as well as one president

of Colombia, Julio Tubay. A vice president in Uruguay and another in

Brazil were Lebanese. At least two Central American presidents were of

Palestinian origin, and this list is nowhere near complete.

The statistics for Islam in Colombia estimate a total Muslim population of 14,000

according to a Pew Research Center report. There are a number of Islamic

organizations in Colombia, including Islamic centers in San Andrés, Bogotá,

Guajira, Nariño, and Santa Marta.

Columbia Coffee is reported to have been planted by the Yemenis in Colombia.

There are approximately 100,000 Muslims in Venezuela which make up 0.4% of the

nation’s population. Venezuela has a small but infuential Muslim population. Many

of them are Arabs of Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian and Turkish descent.

In the islands of Curacao, Puerto Rico and the Virgin

Islands in the Caribbean, Arab Muslim presence is very

visible. The largest number of Arabs in South America

are in Brazil: over 11 million. They represent 6-7% of the

Brazilian population. Muslims are a minority among the

Arabs but there is also an Afro-Brazilian population.

“There are more Lebanese in Brazil than in Lebanon.” There's more tolerance of Muslims in Latin/South America. There's a large Palestinian population in Chile.

Virgin Islands have

Arab-speaking Muslims

who are well-situated.

We are not “off the boat.” Where

do we go from here? Action Items:

• Begins within ourselves and

build consciousness.

• Reach out and bring speakers

from different communities.

• Get to know each other!

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History should be understood from all perspectives and not just the perspective of

the ruling elite or the conqueror.

History should be understood from the winners and the losers.

Muslims had a profound influence on Europe during its “Dark Ages”, keeping the

light of knowledge burning and enabling Europeans to experience a Renaissance.

The basis of the European Renaissance was Muslims. If there were no Muslims, there would be no Renaissance.

Islamic Empires in West Africa were highly developed and provide a rich yet

neglected history. Muslims entered the Americas long before Christopher Columbus

and formed a distinguishable part of American societies. After Columbus, Muslims

were part of the waves of people arriving in the Americas from Portugal and Spain.

African Muslims resisted the Atlantic Slave trade from its inception and

distinguished themselves through piety, literacy and stubborn refusal to be

assimilated into the melting pot of colonial life. During the 19th century Indentured

Labor period, Muslims came to the

Americas in large numbers and were able to quietly maintain their faith. (silent

resistance).

During the 19th and 20th centuries, Muslims came to the Americas from the Ottoman

Empire to work on the westward expansion. They ended up settling in the whole

region from upper Canada to lower Argentina.

Muslims in the Americas have left a legacy of tawḥīd (monotheism), ṭahārah (purity)

and resistance. Even today these qualities are crucial factors in making Islam the

fastest growing religion in the Western Hemisphere.

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Q&A:

1. The Quran talks about light and darkness. Is that in reference to people? a. When the Quran talks about light and darkness, it is not with regards to

people. The problem is with humans; Arabs used to call “white” people yellow while the Arabs themselves were brown.

2. What was Western Imperialism based on? a. Western countries’ imperialism was founded on oppression and hypocrisy.

The same hypocrisy spread around the world to support dictators and despotic leaders in other countries.

3. Too much has been manipulated and messed with the use of interventionism. How do we fix this issue?

a. If they’re going to come in, it should coincide with the interests of the people first.

4. How do we break the chains of neo-colonialism? a. The first part of the revolution is internal. We have deep problems within

the Ummah. b. We have to stop blaming the world and remember:

Surah Anfal, Ayah 53 [8:53]

لم يك مغي را نعمة أنعمها على قوم حتى يغي روا ما ذلك بأن للا

سميع عليم. بأنفسهم وأن للا

“That is so because Allah will never change a grace which He has bestowed on a people until they change what is in their ownselves. And verily, Allah is All-Hearer, All-Knower.”

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